OVI charge was dismissed after laboratory testing confirmed that a 68-year-old woman had no alcohol or drugs in her system despite being arrested following a welfare check in a restaurant parking lot.

CHARGES

• Operating a Vehicle While Impaired (OVI)

DESCRIPTION OF CASE

Our client, a 68-year-old woman, had recently undergone a dental procedure and stopped at a local restaurant to pick up lunch on her way home. After receiving her food, she remained in her parked vehicle and fell asleep. A concerned bystander contacted law enforcement to conduct a welfare check, and officers responded to the parking lot to make contact with her. Although our client declined medical treatment, officers initiated an OVI investigation based on their observations.

Law enforcement administered standardized field sobriety tests. Due to our client’s age, multiple medical conditions, and pre-existing balance limitations, she experienced difficulty performing certain portions of the tests. Officers interpreted her performance as evidence of impairment and placed her under arrest for Operating a Vehicle While Impaired (OVI). Throughout the entire investigation, our client consistently and clearly denied being under the influence of alcohol or any drugs. She cooperated fully and submitted to a urine test, which was sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Approximately three months later, the laboratory results were returned — and they confirmed what our client had maintained from the beginning: no alcohol, no illegal drugs, and no impairing substances of any kind were present in her system. The scientific evidence directly contradicted the basis for her arrest. Faced with laboratory results that eliminated any evidentiary foundation for the charge, the prosecution dismissed the OVI in its entirety.

LEGAL REPRESENTATION

This case is a powerful reminder that a field sobriety test is not a medical examination — it is a subjective assessment conducted roadside, often under stressful conditions, by officers who may not account for the physical realities of age, chronic medical conditions, or the lingering effects of a recent medical procedure. For our client, fatigue from a dental procedure and balance limitations that had nothing to do with impairment were enough to trigger an arrest. Our attorneys ensured that the case did not resolve prematurely and that the laboratory results — the only objective evidence in the matter — were allowed to tell the full story. The result was a complete dismissal and a client whose record remained unblemished.